Samantha Coleby produced two new club records when achieving a double of wins at the North Eastern CountiesTrack and Field Championships at Gateshead International Stadium over the weekend of 25th/26th may.

On the Saturday Samantha enjoyed a comfortable win over 200m and, in doing so, improved her PB and club record of 25.26 which she set at Leeds on April 20th this year - taking it down to 25.08. Whilst reasonably happy with her run she was very frustrated that a bad stumble out of the blocks probably cost her a 24.90+ time. As it is unlikely that she will run any more 200m races this year she may have to wait until next season to make further improvement to the club standard.

Her frustrations were eased somewhat the following day when she reduced her 400m PB, and club record, from 55.28 to 54.80 in winning the county title.

The 400m time particularly is a reasonable performance on the national stage - but it is very encouraging in terms of her prospects for significant improvement over her 400mh main event. Although she is already top ten ranked in the UK for 2013 at 400mh, her 58.92 set in finishing second in her race at the Loughborough International meeting on 19th May is clearly due for revision.

Leeds Met Meeting April 20 2013

A number of university and club members competed at the Inter University match at Leeds Metropolitan University on Saturday, April 20th - including members of the long sprint training group who produced some pleasing performances.

Tom Kearns from the university who is also a member of the harriers. reduced his 400m personal best from 52.90 to 52.57 in just losing out on 3rd place in his race.

Another member of the long sprint group who showed she has wintered well was the universities' Elana Dimmer who finished 4th in the 400m in a new PB of 61.11 - improving her previous PB of 62.10 set the previous weekend.

Samantha Coleby won the 400m by over 40 metres with a PB and club record equaling performance of 55.28. As second place was over 60secs it is probable that Samantha will improve further when she has the chance to be in a race.

Despite this fine performance Samantha had a frustrating day as she traveled to Leeds expecting to race over 400m hurdles - only for the race to be cancelled due to the lack of competitors. So, after warming up for her hurdles race she had to then sit around for a couple of hours and decide what to do instead. So, prior to her 400m win she ran in the 200m B race which she won comfortably in a lifetime best and new club record of 25.26 - despite a strong breeze into the face all sprinters on the bend and in the finishing straight. Samantha's 200m time was faster than the winner of the A race.

Leeds based harrier Sophie Wood was second in the 200m A race in 26.13 which followed another fine win in the long jump with 5.62 - only two centimetres short of her PB set two weeks earlier when winning at Wakefield.

Dan Holden, who has had his training curtailed due to a niggling injury, threw 48.99m for third place in the javelin. With no adverse reaction post event, it is hoped Dan can now resume full training and make further progress this summer

Wakefield Open Meeting 6/7 April 2013

4 Durham City Harriers opened their track season last weekend at the Wakefield Open Meeting and produced performances that suggest that they are on course to make improvements on their personal bests.

Sophie Wood won the senior womens long jump with a personal best of 5.64 metres, was 3rd in the 100 metres in 12.84 and 5th in the 200 metres.

Samantha Coleby won the senior womens 400 metres hurdles in 59.35, a time that currently ranks her 2nd in this years UK rankings. She followed this with a win in the 400 metres in 55.80 - both times are just half a second outside her best.

Gareth Phillips was 2nd in the senior mens 400 metres in 52.10 and shortly afterwards ran a time of 23.78 for 7th in the 200 metres.

Carlo Hill ran his first ever track race after starting athletics 6 months ago and finished 5th in the senior mens 400 metres in 54.07

Northern Indoor Championships February 2013

Two athletes from Durham City Harriers turned out for the Northern Counties Indoor Championships and both athletes were very successful. Joseph Downing, competing in the under 13 boys age group, won 2 silver medals finishing 2nd the high jump and shot putt. He also picked up bronze medals in the long jump and 60 metres. Samantha Coleby won the senior womens 60 metres hurdles, just missing the championship best performance by 6/100ths of a second.

Northern Indoor Championships 12/13 January 2013

Disappointingly there were only 3 Durham City Harriers entered for the Northern Indoor championships at Sheffield last weekend. However, those that did compete showed that their winter training is getting them into good shape for the coming summer track season.

There were 2 senior women 800 metre runners - Emma Toogood, just getting back into racing after injury, was 3rd in her heat in 2.23.60 but just missed the final by one place. Samantha Coleby, more used to 400 metre hurdles, was running this distance for the first time in over 6 years and improved her personal best by 9 seconds recording 2.14.05 to qualify for the final where she finished 6th.

Gareth Phillips just missed qualifying for the semi final of the senior mens 400 metres by one place recording a time of 52.26.

Saturday 08/09/2012 at Monkton Stadium Jarrow

Brian Brown 5000mts Track Championships Silver Medal

Time 24.08 mins

Rachael Coar Pentathlon Championships
200mts Time 27.4 secs
800mts Time 2.38.9mins
IJ 5.01 mts
SP 7.84mts
JT 32.56mts

Pos 1 in Age Group Points 2721

14.6.2012

After lowering his own club 10,000m track club record from 32mins+ to 31:26 when finishing sixth in the recent Northern 10,000m track Championships at Wigan Michael (and his coach) commented that it was an extremely disappointing run given his recent form. Subsequently, it transpired that Michael was under the weather with a bug at Wigan. So, having recovered, he decided to travel to Sandy (Peterborough) last Thursday evening to run in the Biggleswade Track Fest. In a race tailor made for his pace aspirations he was back to his old self and ran over a minute quicker than at Wigan when finishing second in 30:22.70 - thereby bringing the club record within the realms of respectability. Additionally, this moves Michael into 17th place on this years UK senior track rankings. A great performance which will encourage him to continue with his current training programme.

30.6.2012

Congratulations go to Michael Crawley who knocked off almost a minute from his own Club 10k Track record at the Northern Championships on 3th June at Wigan. According to Michael 'he ran a really poor race' so we look forward with real interest to his next outing when he may be happier with his own performance. A stunning achievement.

16.5.2012

There was some notable performances notably by the junior members of the Club in the Anne Marie Readshaw Memorial Open Track & Field Meeting at Shildon, many of whom recorded personal best times which is very encouraging for this the start of the track season.Results were as follows ; U/11 Boys: Joseph Downing -Cricket Ball Throw( 1st) 33.11m; 60m 9.60s (3rd) pb; LJ (3rd) 3.34m; U/13 Girls:Isabell Thornton -100m 16.40s pb;200m 33.69s pb;LJ 2.99m pb; U/15 Girls : Lucy McIlroy- 200m 27.52s (3rd); 100m 13.77s; U/15 Boys : Cameron Bain- 400m 1st 62.35s pb; 200m 28.19s pb; LJ 4.16m pb: Callum Plant- 800m 2.16.34: U/17 Boys: Oliver Watson-400m 3rd 55.99s pb;200m 25.98s pb ; Alex Reay- 400m 58.62s pb:Senior Ladies: Jacqui Hodgson (vet)- 200m 27.59s: Senior Men: Jonny Wilkinson-3000m 9.42.51 pb; Francis Turner (vet)- 800m 2.28.14.

13.3.2012

Congratulations are due to Dan Holden who has just broken his own Javelin Club Record with a throw of 57.60m at the Blackpool meeting at the weekend. The previous record which Dan also held was 55.71m

Full results are here

4.11.2011

Congratulations to Lucy McIlroy who achieved gold with a pb of 8.5 seconds for for 60m indoor in the first of the Jarrow indoor winter grand prix series.

4.10.2011

With a superb team performance at the final North of England Track and Field league Match, Durham lifted themselves to 3rd place overall, so retaining our position in division 2E. The match was very close with promotion match places and relegation places undecided until the final events. With Durham fininshing in Second place at the match league position was secured.

21.2.11

Under 20 Women 400m hurdles. 1st Sophie Wood 61.13, 4th Georgia Whitfield 67.36

Senior Men's Javlin, 5th Dan Holden 55.52m

Senior Men's 400m, 4th Marshall Hungwe-44.57 (New Club Record)